The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Buy British… television series, that is!

Hmmmm…. I don’t know if I should admit this… but my family doesn’t watch any mystery shows together  from the three major networks here in the States. (Three of us, however, do have a show or two that we follow individually…)  Instead, we "import" them… mostly from Great Britain. We do watch crime shows that are made right here in the States like…. Forensic Files, Masterminds, L.A. Confidential, North Mission Road, and we used to love City Confidential so much that we have seen all of them. (Please write me via the "comment button" below if City Confidential is still being made. I thought that both Paul Winfield and Keith David did great jobs as narrators, and I also thought that the writers showed a very good grasp of both the crimes and the cities in which the crimes occurred.)

Getting back to my initial thought…

We started watching The Last Detective (starring Peter Davison) a little while ago, and we are finding it quite enjoyable. (I’ll write about it in another blog…) After finishing our last episode, we started talking (I have to admit that I did most of the talking!) and we started kicking around the question: Why do we watch these British exports instead of our "home-grown" mystery shows? There are so many right here in the States that are available with just one click of our remote, yet we don’t watch them…. Why is that?…..

Hmmmm…. again!

Is it that the Brits have shorter seasons? Well, if that were true, then you would think that the longer seasons would give a series a longer time to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have fewer episodes per season? Again, if that were true, then you would think that the more the episodes, the better the chance to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have younger, more beautiful "stars" in their shows? Well, if that were true then wouldn’t we all be watching them on our major networks each and every week…. since our major networks seem fixated on youthful beauty.

Or is it that since we do have more episodes per season, we "dilute" the writers… They simply can’t spend the time needed on each of the (+/-) 26 episodes on which they feel compelled to present a mystery and wrap up the solution in the allotted 44 minutes… instead of taking a leisurely hour and a half, only five or six times per season to develop characters and plot…. thus not having the necessity of "cranking out"  shows each and every week.

Well, then what is it? Why is it that more and more people are buying the DVDs or joining online rentals like Netflix and Blockbusters?

I remember a time when we could count on A & E to air the high quality British mystery shows… Jeremy Brett in Sherlock Holmes, Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect, David Suchet in Poirot, David Jason in Frost, John Thaw and Kevin Whately in Morse, Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan in Dalziel and Pascoe… (and I’m sure there are more…)

So, why is it that we keep (at least my two college-age children, my husband, and I) seeking out the exported mystery shows…. You only need to look above…. and see the highlighted words to know why we do…. How about you? 

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say…. Then Tell Me!

My family has encouraged me to give the names of authors I have tried and could not abide. I guess that "abide" is a pretty strong word…. but, there are several authors who I really cannot make myself read. The other night, when I put down that book (after trying unsuccessfully for more than a week to read it) I went to my list of authors and wrote a big "YUCK" by her name. I also proceeded to mark off the chronological list of her books… to make sure that I don’t accidentally buy any more. Once I finished annotating my "YUCK" and strike-out marks, I got both of the books that I own ready to donate to my library. I am that sure that I will never want to attempt to read her work again.

So, my family wonders why I don’t "blog" the name of the author. They think that I should be honest and "tell it like it is." But, that really isn’t how "it is." The main reason I don’t give a strong opinion about an author who I can’t force myself to like, is that there are other people who truly enjoy that very same author. I just don’t want to prejudice people who might want to give that author a try in the future who might become a fan of that author… like so many other people. I know it sounds VERY presumptuous of me to think that I might influence someone who is choosing an author for the first time, hoping to find a new favorite…

I have one friend in particular who absolutely loves an author who I have tried to read….  five times…. unsuccessfully! Each time I tried to have a positive attitude when I started reading the first book in her series, but each time I felt like everything about the book was "forced." I simply could not enjoy that particular author. This friend of mine knows how I feel about that author, and sometimes I wonder if she tries to avoid talking about how much she likes her. I know that she eagerly awaits a new book by that author, and, when I come across a new book by the author (while updating my cozy mystery list), I tell her about the new book. But, that’s as far as it goes……… she never tells me how much she enjoyed the book, or even if she read it.

Anyway, getting back to my family’s thought about this subject… Do people who come to this site want me to disclose which authors I simply cannot enjoy? I think that, no, they don’t. But, my husband and two in-their-early 20s children think that yes, I should "tell it like it is." If you have any thoughts on this question (or comments on how I could improve this site)…. please feel free to write a comment to me. (There is a very dim gray line under this blog post with a button to comment.)  I’d love to hear what you think!

Practice Makes Perfect, Try and Try (Again), Don't Judge a Book…

I just started a book by a new author (by "new" I mean that she is new to me… she’s been writing books for years), and try as I might, I simply cannot stay awake while reading her book. Of course, as I have said before, I feel like I absolutely have to start reading an author at the beginning of his/her series, and I know that an author’s first book is not always a true sign of what the author is capable of, but since I have to begin somewhere, it’s the place where I am going to decide whether or not to continue with that author… 

I find that most of my reading is done at the end of the day… while I am relaxing. It’s the time of the day that I consider truly mine… not to be shared with anyone else… doing something I love to do… by myself…. getting immersed in a good, for the most part, cozy mystery.

But, after spending several nights trying to like "my new author," I finally decided that although I know she has many devoted readers out there, I just could not join their ranks.  After trying to read her book for well over a week, and seeing that I was only approaching page fifty, I had to make a choice…

Devout cozy mystery readers know about "the choice" time… It’s the time when you have to decide if you really want to invest more time with this author, or if it’s time to call it a day and move on. Throughout life we are taught to persevere… "practice makes perfect" and "try and try, again" are little sayings that have been ingrained in our brains since we were little. Maybe that is why it is so difficult to move a much-anticipated author from our TBR list (To-Be-Read) to our Tried-and-Didn’t-Like list.

I don’t know if it is the let-down of finding that a much anticipated author just doesn’t cut it for you or if it’s the price of books these days,  I just know that I agonize over not finishing a book. But, I have so many favorite authors who have so many books out there for me to read AND ENJOY, that I just don’t feel like I want to waste time forcing myself to finish a book. Now that I don’t belong to any mystery reading groups, I feel like I don’t "have to finish" a book simply for the sake of finishing it. If I finish a book, it’s because I am enjoying it and want to…. It’s not like I’m in school and there is a test that is going to measure how much of the book I actually read. And, if I don’t like a given author who many other people do like, that just means that variety truly is the spice of life…. or is that the one about a silver lining in wolf’s clothes…

Aha! So That's Who He Is!

I continue to work on the Edgar Awards…. the Best First Novel category. Well, I am embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t know who Richard L. Fish is…. other than I know that there is a special Edgar Award which is given every year in his name. Well, imagine my surprise this afternoon when I discovered that he won the Best First Novel in 1963 (for a novel called The Fugitive.) He wrote many other books…. as Richard L. Fish and Robert L. Pike. Aha! Now I know….

And, I have to admit that there are many other names who don’t mean a thing to me on those lists. But, when I stumble on the names of authors who I do "follow" now….from years ago,  I am gently surprised about the ebb of time… I don’t even remember a time when these authors were not in my repertoire of authors…. but, doing the Best FIRST Novel category…. I am reminded that they weren’t always best selling authors.

Dell Shannon (Case Pending) won the Best First Novel in 1961… now I know I wasn’t reading mysteries back then… no matter how cozy they were!  And how about 1965’s roster of Best First Novel authors…. Harry Kemelman (Friday the Rabi Slept Late) and Amanda Cross (In the Last Analysis.) Tony Hillerman (The Blessing Way) in 1971, and The Thomas Berryman Numbers introduced James Patterson in 1977. A few years later, another Patterson came into the mystery book world with his first novel… In 1980, Richard North Patterson won the Best First Novel for The Lasko Tangent.  Five years later, Jane Haddam/Orania Papazoglou was nominated for her Sweet, Savage Death.

I have enjoyed seeing when different authors "pop up" on some of these award lists. It is always interesting to see how a first best novel leads to later best novels, and in some of the authors’ cases… many best novel awards.

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